


There Has to Be a Way

by MelodicDaemon



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, I did leave it with an ambiguous ending like the comic, I keep calling Varian the Royal Alchemist even though he's the Royal Engineer, I wanted a happy ending so I wrote a happy ending, Illnesses, Magic and Science, Multiple Endings, Nigel is around for the bit towards the end, Post-Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Rapunzel is the Queen, The Sundrop, if you want a bad ending I'll write one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:21:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24394189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelodicDaemon/pseuds/MelodicDaemon
Summary: Rapunzel has fallen ill and no matter what they try, she isn't getting any better.---The first chapter has an ambiguous ending. If you want a happy ending, the second chapter has a small little epilogue. I'll add a bad ending if y'all want one.
Relationships: Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider & Varian, Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel, Rapunzel & Varian (Disney), Ruddiger & Varian (Disney)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 50





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by [@well-love-has-failed-me](https://well-love-has-failed-me.tumblr.com/)'s [comic on Tumblr](https://well-love-has-failed-me.tumblr.com/post/616815631123251200/variantology-day-25-sickness).

At first it only seemed like a cold, but within days, it caught up to Rapunzel. She was fine at first, only mentioning having a slight headache and low fever, deciding to continue to work through it like she always did. Unlike a normal cold, which went away after a few days, this illness got worse. First, the fever got worse, then the chills set in. She said that it felt like the headaches were getting worse. By the third day, she was bedridden due to constant fatigue and dizziness. And finally, on the fifth day, the doctor had finally realized what it was. 

It was very rare to see, but was well known due to Queen Arianna having fallen ill with it a little over 24 years ago. She became the only person known to survive the illness out of the few documented cases. The only reason she survived was because they had the Sundrop flower. But the Sundrop was gone now, having been destroyed alongside the moonstone.

It was terrifying to see just how quickly Rapunzel’s symptoms had worsened. Varian tried to help as much as possible. His attempts to get her fever to go down with different headache remedies he had come up with over the years proved to be unsuccessful. Eventually, he just resorted to the tried and true method of using a cool wet cloth.

He was sitting with her, gently dabbing the cloth across her forehead, while Eugene talked to the doctor. His free hand was in her grip. In an attempt to comfort her, he rubbed his thumb in small circles on the back of her hand. Varian just kind of sat there in a haze as he sat with someone he’d consider his older sister. Eugene and the doctor were pretty much background noise, but when he heard “only a few days left to live”, he snapped out of the haze. Tears started to form in his eyes as he looked down at Rapunzel. There had to be something he could do to help her.

But what could he do? The flower was gone and Rapunzel's hair no longer held the Sundrop's power.

The only way part of the Sundrop’s power remained in their world would be if a small bit had been left behind like what happened with the moonstone. But the flower didn’t hold the power anymore. Even if he could synthesize its power from the remnants of the flower, it had been destroyed by him when he- 

The only other possibility would be if a part of the flower was still where it had grown, but he heard they dug up the roots and everything.

Unless.

He jumped up, dropping the rag onto the bed next to Rapunzel and ran for the door, accidentally bumping into Eugene.

“Kid!” the older man shouted after him, looking between the doctor, Varian, and where his wife lay, debating on whether to stay with Rapunzel or run after the Royal Alchemist.

"I have an idea! I can help!" Varian shouted back to him, not stopping for a second. He mumbled under his breath as he ran, "There has to be a way to save her."

The young man ran, ducking past the guards who—after 4 years of him being the Royal Engineer—were used to his bursts of energy by now, but were still caught off guard every time. They called after him, confused as to where he was going, but Varian just shouted back sorries as he hurried to where the flower had once grown.

It was by no means close to the capital, but he was able to get there pretty quickly. It helped that people were used to seeing him run through the streets of Corona and knew to get out of his way. On his way, he stopped by Xavier’s shop, grabbing a bucket and something to use as a shovel, promising the blacksmith that he’d explain what he was doing when he returned the bucket.

He shoved aside the leaves that hid where the flower had once grown, seeing the pedestal that marked where it once was. He dropped down to his knees in front of it, setting the bucket next to him as he started to turn up the grass, looking for any signs of…

Bingo! Seeds! The flower had made and dropped seeds. Now he just had to hope it held part of the Sundrop’s power. 

He tried to turn up as much dirt as he could, dropping chunks of dirt that seemed to hold seeds into the bucket. He put as much into the bucket so that he could still carry it but surely had more than just two seeds. 

\---

“Ruddiger, get a sieve,” Varian said as he shouldered his way into the lab that had been added to the castle years ago when he started working there more often. His faithful companion scampered ahead and started to shuffle through his messy shelves of tools before pulling out the mesh strainer.

Varian set the bucket on his workbench before grabbing a separate bucket to catch the dirt that would fall as he tried to get as many seeds from what he collected as he could. By the time he pulled three seeds from the dirt, he handed the sieve off to Ruddiger to find more.

He grumbled about needing to clean up more often as he scrapped the remains of one of his prior experiments off his desk. He had been working on making fertilizers so crops would grow quicker and produce more, so he already had some boxes of dirt set up and some chemicals already mixed.

Varian grabbed one of the unused boxes and started to gently shove the seeds into the dirt. The mixtures were mostly tested, just being different amounts of the base components to see which had the effect necessary. As he got prepped to start, Ruddiger scampered over with a small bag, holding it out to him. 

“Thank you, buddy,” Varian said as he took the bag. He reached up to one of the upper shelves and pulled some nuts from a box made specifically so Ruddiger couldn’t open it. (Varian had to make it so the raccoon couldn’t steal treats when he wasn’t looking.) He dropped them onto the table next to him as a little thank you to his friend. 

As Ruddiger happily nibbled at the treat, Varian shoved all but one of the seeds into the dirt, planning to save one to grow naturally and test once it was fully grown. He fixed his goggles before grabbing some clean pipettes to use to drop only a little bit of each of the different mixtures onto the seeds. 

Carefully he dropped a bit of the first mixture onto a seed and waited. After about a minute he finally concluded that it had no visible effect. The next one he tested burned the seed right up. The third changed from a liquid to foam as soon as it touched the dirt. The fourth took a second before a purple fire started, ruining the seed and making him jump back.

Varian set the pipette down, burying his face in his hands as he groaned. He now only had one more chance unless he could find more seeds. The chances of finding more seeds were slimmer  _ and  _ they were already running low on time as it is. Tears were starting to well up in his eyes as he stood there. He had to shove his goggles up to wipe them away.  _ ‘I have to make this count,’ _ he thought to himself as he fixed his goggles and grabbed the final mixture.

There was a lot less of this one as it was newer, still in a test tube instead of a beaker like the rest.

Varian started to hum the healing incantation he had first heard Rapunzel sing, then read when translating the Demanitus scroll. “Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine. Make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine,” he mumbled softly as he filled the pipette and bent down to be eye level with the seed, carefully positioning the tool above the seed. “Heal what has been hurt. Save what has been lost,” he whispered as he let the concoction drip onto the seed. 

He set the pipette to rest in the vial on the stand. He rested his head against the table, watching the seed as he mumbled out, “bring back what once was mine. What once was mine.”

There was still no reaction. He sighed as tears started to well up in his eyes again. He buried his head into his arms, trying to hold back sobs.

After about a minute, Ruddiger gently shook his arm. He moved to push his companion back. “Not now Ruddiger,” he said softly, his voice wavering. That still didn’t deter the raccoon who started to shake him again. Varian pushed him away again, only for the raccoon to still try and continue. “What’s the matter, Ruddiger,” he said, his voice catching in his throat as he moved to sit up. 

He let out a small gasp when he saw what caused the raccoon to try and get his attention.

In front of him a flower sat in the dirt, the petals much more vibrant than the flower he had stolen years ago, but nowhere near as bright as Rapunzel’s hair had once been.

He let out a shaky laugh, removing his goggles to let the tears that were starting to pool in them slide down his cheeks. “It worked,” his whispered out, a small smile forming on his face. Varian turned to Ruddiger and pulled him into a hug, “Oh my gods, it worked.” He was about to twirl around in excitement when he remembered he needed to get the flower to Rapunzel as soon as possible.

Varian set Ruddiger back on the table as he grabbed a beaker and carefully scooped the dirt the flower was rooted in into the jar. He grabbed his backpack carefully the beaker in it. Varian closed it carefully so the flower would stick out of the bag, but the beaker and dirt wouldn’t risk falling out. He threw the pack on and started running through the castle, ducking past guards and servants once again.

\---

“Rapunzel!” he shouted as he got closer to her room. “Queen Rapunzel! I did it! I figured it out! I have the cure!” he screamed, ignoring the strain on his voice as he burst through her bedroom door to see Eugene sitting by her side and Nigel standing over her. 

The Royal Advisor stepped away from her side to stand between Varian and the bed. “Now hold on a minute, boy,” he said as he looked down at the alchemist, “How do we know this will not turn out like one of your lab accidents?”

Varian stopped and started to shy away from him, but continued to hold his gaze. “I can’t guarantee it will work like the flower once had for Queen Arianna, but it should be nearly identical to the Sundrop!”

“Nearly!? How do you know if it will work then?”

“It’s the only option we have!”

The Royal Advisor sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose, “This is not your choice to make!”

Eugene looked at them with a concerned expression before turning his gaze back to his dying wife. “I think... we should…” he started only to be cut off by Rapunzel’s weak voice.

“Var- Varian…” she croaked out as she rolled over slightly. 

“Sunshine…”

“Rapunzel,” Varian whispered as he moved over to her side.

She reached up and grabbed his sleeve, pulling on it softly. A lump started to form in Varian’s throat as he could feel just how weak her tug was.

“I-I trust y- trust you…” she said, her voice barely a whisper. A small sad smile formed on Varian’s face as he looked down at her.

It was only a moment before her hand slipped from his sleeve, talking obviously having taken a lot out of her. 

“Varian. You have to hurry,” Eugene pleaded as he looked up at the alchemist. 

Varian hesitated before nodding, dropping his backpack to the floor. He grabbed the glass of water that sat by her bed before kneeling down on the floor. He had heard stories of how Queen Arianna was saved so he knew what to do. 

Carefully, he cut the flower from its stem before dropping it into the water. He watched as water slowly took on the soft yellow glow the flower had previously been emitting.

With Eugene’s help, the two got Rapunzel to drink the water, only the flower being left in the glass. The flower was no longer glowing, so they could only hope it worked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and Comments are greatly appreciated. Critiques are also fine!  
> Wanna chat? Feel free to message me on tumblr [@MothDaemon](https://mothdaemon.tumblr.com) or check out my art on tumblr [@MelodicDaemon](https://melodicdaemon.tumblr.com).


	2. Happy Ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's short. I could add more on if people are interested, but I may not.

A few days later, Rapunzel started to get better. It took longer for her to get better than it was said to have taken Arianna, so they could only assume the flower only held a small portion of the Sundrop’s power, but it was enough to work.

Not long after, Varian got to work planting the last remaining seed and caring for it so should the kingdom need it again, they had it. Instead of being kept in the vault, it was kept in a separate heavily guarded room so Varian could tend to it. He planned to let it grow fully and collect seeds from it before he started to run tests on it.

Once Rapunzel had made a full recovery, she made sure to visit the young alchemist in his lab to thank him. And as expected, the kingdom held a celebration for her recovery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and Comments are greatly appreciated. Critiques are also fine!  
> Wanna chat? Feel free to message me on tumblr [@MothDaemon](https://mothdaemon.tumblr.com) or check out my art on tumblr [@MelodicDaemon](https://melodicdaemon.tumblr.com).


End file.
